


and the sand in the glass is right

by Thorinsmut



Series: Aladdin AU [2]
Category: Aladdin (1992), The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Side Stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-02-28 17:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2741105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/pseuds/Thorinsmut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short collection of Family Feels for the Aladdin AU.</p><p>Chapter 1 - Dori visits Nori in prison<br/>Chapter 2 - what Dori knows<br/>Chapter 3 - it was inevitable<br/>Chapter 4 - homecoming</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Dori was good and angry for a full day after Nori got himself arrested. No, not angry. Furious. He'd warned his little brother, time and again he'd warned him—and now? Arrested, and there was precious little Dori could do for him. He hadn't the money to protect him, and he was angry enough he might have second guessed spending it if he had.

Dori was angry for a full day, and then he was terrified. Well-meaning neighbors came by with stories and advice, what knowledge and supplies Nori would need to survive. Dori had known it prison was bad, that it was uncomfortable. He had not dreamed it to be so dangerous as those who had been imprisoned said, and his sweet little Nori was trapped in there alone. He was hardly more than a child, but that would not protect him.

Dori spent the next two days gathering up a basket of what he'd been told Nori would need—needles and thread for repairing clothes and to trade, dates and bread and cheese to eat or to trade to make friends with decent folk who could hopefully look out for him, and a few bottles of date wine to get Dori past the guards to see him. Dori had been so furious when he saw Nori the first time he'd threatened him with the weaver's guild. Nori had a fine eye for threads and colors, he could have made his fortune at weaving if he liked, but Dori knew he hated it. Nori had been so scared when Dori saw him, he'd agreed to it—sweet frightened boy. By the end of the third day Dori had a few much better options to keep Nori's hopes up. He had not wanted it for his brother's career, but Dori had finally spoken to the mistress of a dancing troop and she had agreed to accept him. If Nori did not want that, his friend Bofur's elder cousin Bifur had offered him a place in his little caravan, selling toys from city to city. They were good options, not what Dori had hoped for Nori, but good honest careers that would appeal to his reckless brother.

Work would keep him safe and alive and out of trouble.

When Dori arrived at the prison with a polite smile and date wine to share to soften up the guards, none of them would look him in the eye.

"I need to see my brother," he tried, cold terror in his stomach. "I need to see Nori, the little one with the red hair?"

"You need to go," he was told, and "he's not here," and nothing else.

"If he is not here, then where is he?" Dori begged, but they would not look at him and they would not talk to him and he was sent away. He could only leave, when they began growling and fingering their swords.

He left the prison, but where could he go? He could not go home. He could not just _give up_ on his little Nori he'd failed so completely. Dori clung to his sad little basket and tried to keep the tears from blinding him as he sat in the street.

He did not know what he was even waiting for until he saw one of the guards leaving alone.

"Please," Dori begged her. "Please, if you have any heart in you, at least tell me where his body is so I can honor it?"

 _She_ looked at him, with her hand across her mouth and tears in her eyes. She glanced around quickly before she grabbed him and backed him into an alley.

"Your brother is not dead," the guard hissed, glancing behind herself in paranoia, "It's worth more than my neck to tell you this. He was taken by the Genie." she shoved Dori away and turned, nearly running from him as she fled.

Dori sagged, all the strength leaving his body. The Genie. Nori had been taken to the Cave of Wonders and no one ever got out of there. Had poor sweet Nori even known what he was doing? He could not possibly, and Dori curled around his sad little basket as he sobbed. It was Dori's fault. Dori had driven him to it. If Dori had allowed him to become a dancer sooner he might never have been caught as a thief. Dori had threatened him and said he would not help when Nori was hurt and afraid, and now he was gone.

Nori was gone forever now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what Dori knows

Nori came home when he was afraid.

It had taken Dori a while to realize. Nori did not come home often, and he was close-mouthed and wary when he did. Dori could not speak much either. Nori never told him that he was in the Cave of Wonders, keeping him safe from it, and Dori could not tell him he knew for the same reason. All their words fell into silence between them those rare times Nori came home.

He came home with money Dori could hardly bear to touch, with his face and hair all hidden so he could not be known. Dori cooked for him, fed him his favorites and prayed Nienna's mercy his little brother would live to come visit him again.

Nori came home afraid, always. Dori did not know what use the Genie had for Nori, but that it was dangerous and Nori came home to say goodbye now and then. Give Dori all his money and eat one last meal with him before he was off. If Dori was his good luck charm, he would do it gladly.

If that was all he could do for his lost brother.

Dori had worried when he took little Ori in that Nori would think himself replaced, but he fell in love with that sweet child just as surely as Dori had.

"You'll look after him?" Nori had asked, all hidden in shadows so Dori could barely make out his face but his voice trembling. "You'll make sure he doesn't... he doesn't... he won't be like me?" Nori rubbed at his face with his hands.

"Of course," Dori promised. "I'll do better for him than I did for you." his guilt was still so sharp at his failure with Nori.

"You couldn't have done better for me, Dori. It's not your fault I..." Nori broke himself off, shaking his head hard as he swiped at his face with his sleeve and then hugged Dori hard. His back was shaking with sobs when Dori hugged him back, but then Nori slipped away and was gone again. Such few words and it was the closest they'd ever gotten to talking about it.

It broke Dori's heart fresh that Nori could never promise Ori that he would come back. Little Ori, so lost without his parents and begging for reassurance Nori could not give him. Ori's broken little heart took Nori in without question, and bruised again every time Nori evaded a promise until he gave up. Nori brought Ori little gifts and listened to him talk and he loved Nori even though in all his drawings Nori was just a shadow in the corner, the hint of a turban and the shape of limbs. He'd never seen Nori's face properly, and neither had Dori in all these years. He could nearly forget himself what his brother looked like.

Nori came home when he was afraid, and Dori had never seen him so afraid as he was when he came home the last time. He'd visited repeatedly, singing and listening to stories, practicing his Cilician accent in mutters when he did not think anyone heard. Dori had never seen him so afraid as he was on his final visit. Maybe it was a stiffness in his limbs that gave him away, a tight trembling to his back when Dori hugged him.

"I wish you could stop," Dori sighed, but Nori had been taken into the Cave of Wonders and the Genie would suck him dry to the final drop. Nori just shook his head, burying his face against Dori's neck as if he could hide. There was not much Dori wouldn't give to be able to offer him that safety.

Then Nori was gone again, to do something dangerous and illegal. To do something that terrified him.

And the entire city of Agrabah was buzzing about slender red-haired prince Nori of Cilicia, who had _not_ been flung out of the palace on his ear.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was inevitable

Dori looked into his little brother's face for the first time in so many years, and his heart broke. He had wanted to see Nori for so long, but not like this. Dori had known the day would come, ever since the Genie took Nori into the Cave of Wonders. No matter how carefully Nori tried to keep his family separate from the work he was made to do, it was inevitable it would spill over. Dori knew that. The Genie was too dangerous.

Nori had tried so hard to keep his family separate, but once he was sent into the palace—into the palace itself, the madness—and things inevitably went poorly, Dori was brought into it. The Genie would use any advantage he could imagine, and family was no exception.

Ori, clever little lad, had never questioned why Dori had escape plans for him. He'd figured out on his own, no doubt, that Nori was a danger to them. He was a criminal, but they loved him. Dori could never have sent him away. When he saw the Genie's men coming for him, Dori had sent Ori running off—just another Cilician immigrant child among so many others he would never be found.

Dori fought—he had no desire to be a playing piece in the Genie's games—but of course he lost. He was no trained warrior. He was dragged into the palace, and he saw his brother.

Nori was not the child he'd been when last he let Dori see his face. He had grown into a man, hard and sharp and fierce fighting against the arms of his own captors, but Dori could still see some of their mother's face in him. Nori was all calculation even with Dori under attack, twisting his silver words around so the two men most dangerous to him attacked each other.

Dori's head spun in the wake of the battle, as so much that seemed true was shown to be false. Nori was not. Nori was in his element amidst the deception and intrigue. He did not seem to care for the danger, for his own life.

Dori could hear an echo of his voice shouting that he was dead already when Nori did not even acknowledge his plea to leave. The Genie was dead, Nori ought to be free, but he was driven on still. Nori had already been executed once, and was going willingly to where Smaug said he would kill him a second time with cold purpose behind his hard hazel eyes.

Dori followed where the silenced guard led him, looking back until Nori was out of sight—the last he might ever see of him.

After so many years, he was not at all the sweet child he'd been when last Dori saw his face.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> homecoming

Nori came home, and he was smiling.

Dori had not known, for weeks, what became of him. Dori was taken out of the palace and seen safely home by the silenced guard, and heard nothing else. All of Agrabah knew there had been some big fight at the palace—that the Genie had tried a takeover and been killed. The Cave of Wonders had collapsed without him, scattered before the wind. Thorin was a prince, the heir of the throne as Nori had fought for, but Dori did not know what had become of his brother until he came home.

Nori was smiling the way Dori hadn't seen in so many years, and he was not hiding his face in shadows. He'd come in unseen, as always, but he sat in Dori's kitchen with his face in full light.

Dori dropped what he was carrying and flung himself on his brother to hold him tight.

"It's ok, Dori..." Nori soothed, half laughing. "I'm alright. We won."

Dori composed himself, finally. Nori shared a bottle of sweet palm wine with him, and they _talked_ the way they had not in so many years. There was a hardness in Nori, sharp as a blade with shadows in his eyes, but then he would laugh bright and free as the child he'd been before Dori failed him.

"It was never your fault, Dori, I did it to myself," Nori assured him. As though he could have known what he was getting into, so young when the Genie took him. "I can't even regret it. It put me where I needed to be, when Thorin needed me."

Nori's face lit every time he mentioned the prince, hope and joy when he spoke what vague details he would give of his work, when so long it had been fear and despair.

Ori hesitated when he came home, stopping uncertainly at the kitchen door when he caught sight of Nori with Dori.

"Hello Ori," Nori greeted, a little shy himself. Ori's mouth dropped open, eyes growing huge and round.

"Nori?" he asked, seeing his brother's face for the first time.

"That's me, I..." Nori started, cut off by Ori running to hug him and climb into his lap, touching his face and asking questions. Dori left them at it, pretending not to notice when Nori poured Ori half a glass of palm wine. It was fresh and sweet, just a little wouldn't do him any harm.

Nori laughed, and told jokes and stories, and got in the way when Dori tried to cook.

"I can't come live here, I'm too busy with work, but I should be able to visit more now." Nori assured Ori, who was bouncing off the walls in excitement at having his brother really _home_.

Working for Prince Thorin might not be that much safer than working for the Genie, but Nori was happy and he was home. He did not have to hide himself from them anymore. Dori set a simple table, nothing at all like what he must have had in the palace, but Nori fell on it like it was the best food he'd ever tasted.

Dori sat at the table with both his brothers happy and alive and within arm's reach, and everything was right.


End file.
